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<blockquote data-quote="steeldragons" data-source="post: 6230633" data-attributes="member: 92511">This is really an interesting challenge you've taken on...as,&nbsp; particularly within D&amp;D, I tend to think that all of the options&nbsp; have been...well, optioned by now.If you are following the&nbsp; traditional D&amp;D MM &amp; dragon books' types, then your options&nbsp; would be to follow the established fields: Color, Metal, Gem, Element,&nbsp; Terrain, and Planar...then, weren't there something like &quot;Catastrophic&nbsp; dragons&quot; or something to like that? The &quot;pyroclastic&quot; dragon, or&nbsp; whatever it was, in Dragonlance and such like.Chromatics: Red,&nbsp; Green, Blue, Black, White [given]. Yellow, Purple, Brown...I think Grey&nbsp; but dunno what their breath weapon was...and Orange, apparently have&nbsp; been done. Then there's the &quot;Pink&quot; which I've seen done with sticky&nbsp; marshmallow, bubbles, bubblegum and, in fact, pepto-bismul or straight&nbsp; bismuth (the effects of which on humanoids I do not know/recall).So for&nbsp; colors...you're kind left with some repeats and/or making up your own&nbsp; hybrids: Purple (red &amp; blue), Pink (red &amp; white), Brown (red&nbsp; &amp; green?) and Grey (black &amp; white) you can make up your own&nbsp; variations of...and then Teal (blue &amp; green), Olive (green &amp;&nbsp; black), Maroon (red &amp; black or red &amp; brown?), et al...with whatever you want them to&nbsp; have...Puce? Taupe? Chartreuse? Go nuts.Metallics are more&nbsp; difficult: Brass, Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum (given).&nbsp; Mercury, Iron, [eh-hem] Steel and a coupla others I know I'm&nbsp; forgetting...been done. Your only real option is to look at different&nbsp; metals, ores...maybe minerals?....and pick some.Maybe between these, or between Metallics and Gems, they create a new line of &quot;Alchemical&quot; dragons. Of course, you'd have to brush up on your alchemy to figure out some cool combos/effects for the offspring to have...but might be a decent &quot;theme&quot; for a new line.Then there's the&nbsp; Element=Terrain Eastern ones: Sea, Storm, Wood/Tree/Forest,&nbsp; Stone/Earth, Fire...was &quot;Lake&quot; separate from Sea? I think ti&nbsp; was...Volcano, is that one? If not you could make a Earth/Fire hybrid.&nbsp; The Sea &amp; Storm dragons could produce a &quot;Hurricane/Typhoon&quot; dragon&nbsp; (that sounds nasty, actually). Of course, these have all been done [I&nbsp; think] as the &quot;catastrophe dragons.&quot; But no reason you couldn't make&nbsp; them your own.You could go straight &quot;terrain&quot; types...I'm sure some systems/3pp have these floating around...alter origins for your world, blues &amp; brass create &quot;Desert dragons&quot;...green &amp; black make &quot;Swamp dragons&quot;, etc...Gemstone,&nbsp; I think, might be the simplest as there are plenty (to my knowledge)&nbsp; gems, precious and semi-precious stones that haven't been covered.&nbsp; Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, Diamond...straight Quartz/Crystal, Pearl,&nbsp; Amethyst...has Onyx been done? Garnet, Amber, Topaz, Jet, Obsidian,&nbsp; Catseye? Turquoise?...I think Jade is floating around somewhere? These don't really&nbsp; &quot;combine.&quot; All you can do is pick some that haven't been done and make&nbsp; they're own. Then there's the [relatively few, I think] Planar&nbsp; ones: &quot;Faerie&quot; (which I count as a separate plane),&nbsp; Shadow,...someone's come up with a &quot;Light&quot; dragon by now, right?&nbsp; Associated with the Positive Energy plane? Astral's been done, right?&nbsp; Not sure what else you could do with this...&quot;Celestial/Higher planes&quot;,&nbsp; &quot;Infernal/Hellish&quot;, &quot;Demonic/Abyssal&quot;? Again, not really something that&nbsp; lends itself to &quot;melding together.&quot; You could, I guess, maybe, perhaps, come up with &quot;faye&quot; style evil/hell/shadow dragons, call 'em &quot;Imp dragons&quot;? There's&nbsp; the straight &quot;energy/breath type&quot; dragons...which kinda overlaps with&nbsp; Shadow or other planar bits, the Sonic breath weapon, the&nbsp; Positive/Negative energy breath weapon, your standard &quot;energy&quot; types [in&nbsp; quotes cuz acid, sand, poison and gases are not an energy type]. Come&nbsp; up with some of your own variations on those...Maybe, as a result of&nbsp; their magical experimentation/desperation to continue their existence,&nbsp; you get dragons, of any color, sheen or markings, with things like&nbsp; green-beam &quot;Disintegrate&quot; breath...petrifying &quot;Flesh to Stone&quot;&nbsp; gas breath [and the reverse]...metallic/good dragons, maybe, in appeals to their deities,&nbsp; create types of breath weapons with clerical effects? &quot;Bless&quot; or &quot;Heal&quot;&nbsp; breath (in addition to some type of defensive/destructive types).&nbsp; Way&nbsp; back when, my very first Choose Your Own Adventure book was the one&nbsp; with the &quot;Rainbow Dragons&quot;...who breathe rainbow colors, but I don't&nbsp; really recall what their powers were. It might have been kinda&nbsp; faye-ish, color spray, illusionary kinda thing...or it could have been&nbsp; (or you could make it) a Prismatic Spray effect...that'd be kinda&nbsp; sweet.Picture a sky-blue dragon with frills and wings in&nbsp; shifting rainbow hues and an overly polite/solicitous gentile demeanor. Party comes across a&nbsp; multi-colored prissy-looking dragon, acting kinda goofy, inviting them to stay for tea, that kinda thing...Guess&nbsp; what, it doesn't like to be laughed at and breathes prismatic&nbsp; spray...nastay!You could go straight for damage/physical type&nbsp; dragons...like if dragons mated with some drakes/linnorms to try to&nbsp; spread their draconic seeds as far as possible...so there's your Fanged,&nbsp; Clawed, &quot;Spiked&quot; [a porcupine-like spike-hurler?], &quot;Horned&quot;...how 'bout&nbsp; &quot;Webbed&quot; and &quot;Winged&quot; [make most of these guys non-flying and then have&nbsp; the Winged one that can fly? Death from above! AAAHHH!!!!] maybe with&nbsp; some minor terrain-based power/association. I dunno...that's&nbsp; about all I have. Dragons in D&amp;D have been sooo done. The idea of&nbsp; coming up with &quot;new&quot; ones just kinda seems like...spreading the paint a&nbsp; bit too thin, ya know? My best recommendation would be to take the&nbsp; dragons the players are going to know...and make them something else.Visual&nbsp; changes through offspring/evolution normally takes a LOOONG time&nbsp; [granted with dragons/magic you can do it in a blink, but stay with me&nbsp; for a sec].Have the Red dragon, whatever it mated with, still&nbsp; has what appears to be Red dragon offspring...but then, when the battle&nbsp; is joined and it opens its mouth, it's &quot;breathing&quot; a psionic&nbsp; blast...save for consciousness.You've trekked through the arctic&nbsp; tundra to search out [what you believe is] the great-granddaddy of all White dragons (and his&nbsp; &quot;Glacier Diamond&quot; said to be the size of a giant's head). You find him&nbsp; relaxing peacefully in a steaming hot spring in a cavern filled with&nbsp; massive icicles and ice-covered stalactites. It casually notices you&nbsp; and...breathes fire?!...at the ceiling?!!! Structural damage [the dragon&nbsp; can easily dig and melt its way out whenever it wants] and saves from&nbsp; ev'rybody for the huge icy spikes and chunks of rock coming for your&nbsp; head.&nbsp;&nbsp; I think this, not only, furthers your story but will&nbsp; comPLETEly throw off even the most experienced players. It won' be&nbsp; &quot;Blue Dragon! Cleric/Druid makes us all immune to electricity while half&nbsp; the party pulls out their 'good against electricity [and/or blue&nbsp; dragons]' magic items.&quot;It'll be &quot;Dragon! [shake in boots] It's blue...but $#!t! [shake in boots] What's it gonna do/breathe?! TAKE COVER!!!&quot;Which is, really, all any of us [DMs] want from a dragon encounter in the first place, right?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="steeldragons, post: 6230633, member: 92511"] This is really an interesting challenge you've taken on...as, particularly within D&D, I tend to think that all of the options have been...well, optioned by now. If you are following the traditional D&D MM & dragon books' types, then your options would be to follow the established fields: Color, Metal, Gem, Element, Terrain, and Planar...then, weren't there something like "Catastrophic dragons" or something to like that? The "pyroclastic" dragon, or whatever it was, in Dragonlance and such like. Chromatics: Red, Green, Blue, Black, White [given]. Yellow, Purple, Brown...I think Grey but dunno what their breath weapon was...and Orange, apparently have been done. Then there's the "Pink" which I've seen done with sticky marshmallow, bubbles, bubblegum and, in fact, pepto-bismul or straight bismuth (the effects of which on humanoids I do not know/recall). So for colors...you're kind left with some repeats and/or making up your own hybrids: Purple (red & blue), Pink (red & white), Brown (red & green?) and Grey (black & white) you can make up your own variations of...and then Teal (blue & green), Olive (green & black), Maroon (red & black or red & brown?), et al...with whatever you want them to have...Puce? Taupe? Chartreuse? Go nuts. Metallics are more difficult: Brass, Copper, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum (given). Mercury, Iron, [eh-hem] Steel and a coupla others I know I'm forgetting...been done. Your only real option is to look at different metals, ores...maybe minerals?....and pick some. Maybe between these, or between Metallics and Gems, they create a new line of "Alchemical" dragons. Of course, you'd have to brush up on your alchemy to figure out some cool combos/effects for the offspring to have...but might be a decent "theme" for a new line. Then there's the Element=Terrain Eastern ones: Sea, Storm, Wood/Tree/Forest, Stone/Earth, Fire...was "Lake" separate from Sea? I think ti was...Volcano, is that one? If not you could make a Earth/Fire hybrid. The Sea & Storm dragons could produce a "Hurricane/Typhoon" dragon (that sounds nasty, actually). Of course, these have all been done [I think] as the "catastrophe dragons." But no reason you couldn't make them your own. You could go straight "terrain" types...I'm sure some systems/3pp have these floating around...alter origins for your world, blues & brass create "Desert dragons"...green & black make "Swamp dragons", etc... Gemstone, I think, might be the simplest as there are plenty (to my knowledge) gems, precious and semi-precious stones that haven't been covered. Sapphire, Ruby, Emerald, Diamond...straight Quartz/Crystal, Pearl, Amethyst...has Onyx been done? Garnet, Amber, Topaz, Jet, Obsidian, Catseye? Turquoise?...I think Jade is floating around somewhere? These don't really "combine." All you can do is pick some that haven't been done and make they're own. Then there's the [relatively few, I think] Planar ones: "Faerie" (which I count as a separate plane), Shadow,...someone's come up with a "Light" dragon by now, right? Associated with the Positive Energy plane? Astral's been done, right? Not sure what else you could do with this..."Celestial/Higher planes", "Infernal/Hellish", "Demonic/Abyssal"? Again, not really something that lends itself to "melding together." You could, I guess, maybe, perhaps, come up with "faye" style evil/hell/shadow dragons, call 'em "Imp dragons"? There's the straight "energy/breath type" dragons...which kinda overlaps with Shadow or other planar bits, the Sonic breath weapon, the Positive/Negative energy breath weapon, your standard "energy" types [in quotes cuz acid, sand, poison and gases are not an energy type]. Come up with some of your own variations on those... Maybe, as a result of their magical experimentation/desperation to continue their existence, you get dragons, of any color, sheen or markings, with things like green-beam "Disintegrate" breath...petrifying "Flesh to Stone" gas breath [and the reverse]...metallic/good dragons, maybe, in appeals to their deities, create types of breath weapons with clerical effects? "Bless" or "Heal" breath (in addition to some type of defensive/destructive types). Way back when, my very first [I]Choose Your Own Adventure[/I] book was the one with the "Rainbow Dragons"...who breathe rainbow colors, but I don't really recall what their powers were. It might have been kinda faye-ish, color spray, illusionary kinda thing...or it could have been (or you could make it) a Prismatic Spray effect...that'd be kinda sweet. Picture a sky-blue dragon with frills and wings in shifting rainbow hues and an overly polite/solicitous gentile demeanor. Party comes across a multi-colored prissy-looking dragon, acting kinda goofy, inviting them to stay for tea, that kinda thing...Guess what, it doesn't like to be laughed at and breathes prismatic spray...nastay! You could go straight for damage/physical type dragons...like if dragons mated with some drakes/linnorms to try to spread their draconic seeds as far as possible...so there's your Fanged, Clawed, "Spiked" [a porcupine-like spike-hurler?], "Horned"...how 'bout "Webbed" and "Winged" [make most of these guys non-flying and then have the Winged one that can fly? Death from above! AAAHHH!!!!] maybe with some minor terrain-based power/association. I dunno...that's about all I have. Dragons in D&D have been sooo done. The idea of coming up with "new" ones just kinda seems like...spreading the paint a bit too thin, ya know? My best recommendation would be to take the dragons the players are going to know...and make them something else. Visual changes through offspring/evolution normally takes a LOOONG time [granted with dragons/magic you can do it in a blink, but stay with me for a sec]. Have the Red dragon, whatever it mated with, still has what appears to be Red dragon offspring...but then, when the battle is joined and it opens its mouth, it's "breathing" a psionic blast...save for consciousness. You've trekked through the arctic tundra to search out [what you believe is] the great-granddaddy of all White dragons (and his "Glacier Diamond" said to be the size of a giant's head). You find him relaxing peacefully in a steaming hot spring in a cavern filled with massive icicles and ice-covered stalactites. It casually notices you and...breathes fire?!...at the ceiling?!!! Structural damage [the dragon can easily dig and melt its way out whenever it wants] and saves from ev'rybody for the huge icy spikes and chunks of rock coming for your head. I think this, not only, furthers your story but will comPLETEly throw off even the most experienced players. It won' be "Blue Dragon! Cleric/Druid makes us all immune to electricity while half the party pulls out their 'good against electricity [and/or blue dragons]' magic items." It'll be "Dragon! [shake in boots] It's blue...but $#!t! [shake in boots] What's it gonna do/breathe?! TAKE COVER!!!" Which is, really, all any of us [DMs] want from a dragon encounter in the first place, right? [/QUOTE]

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